Rainy Days and Mondays

     
     As I sat quietly with the Lord this morning, I was having a little heart to heart with Him about suffering. I thought back on my own depths of suffering, as my mind turned to the variety of painful experiences that so many of the precious people I love and care for are going through, even now.  I began thinking about the way we dread suffering...you know, that underlying fear that "the other shoe is about to drop" or the "what if's" that we all run through in our minds, as if thinking of them first could prevent them from actually happening. In reality, the only thing that our worries are sure to produce is an increase in our anxiety levels! 
     And then I heard it...the steady tapping of the rain outside my window and with it, a realization that God was telling me something with each drop that fell. 

Perhaps we need to see suffering like rain...

~As much as we may not like it, the harder it comes down, the more it transforms the landscape...eroding the superficial and revealing what really lies beneath the surface. 
~It purifies, cleansing and washing away the dirt and grime that have accumulated.
~Not only does it reveal and cleanse, but it quenches dry ground and brings forth new life. The rain is a necessary element to provide and sustain growth.

He really does use ALL things...

as He grows us to become more like Christ,

bringing Him glory as we are transformed.

(Romans 8:28-29) 

     So on this rainy Monday, take heart beloved, if you find yourself in the midst of a season of suffering, know that it doesn't last forever...the sun will come back out...and remember, it is only after the rain that the fullness of His promises are brought forth in the beauty of the rainbow. 

    Perhaps it is no coincidence, that as I finish writing this post...the sun is appearing from behind the clouds...hope bursting forth anew. 

The Way Out for the Weary and Worn~The Beautiful Exchange

Feeling weary and worn? Oh precious one, I know the exhaustion of a tired and parched soul...I have felt how the weight of life's heaviness threatens to overwhelm you.

Take heart, there is One whose strength never fails, Who is waiting for you to realize that He has been at your side all along...ready to lift you up, willing to exchange your weakness for His strength! One who longs  for you to turn from where you have put your hope...that well that has run dry and left you wounded, empty, and lost. He is calling you to look, to open your eyes to what or who you have trusted in to carry you...to see clearly how it has proven woefully inadequate and that He alone offers an endless supply of love, of grace, and of strength and wisdom.  

The moment we turn our face toward Him and see the One who created all  things, we know instictively in our soul, that He is the only One capable of carrying our hope, of holding it in His loving hands, of never growing weary or losing strength. It is in that moment, when we place our hope in Him, there is a beautiful exchange...He takes our hope and He gives us the endless strength and power that enables our spirit to soar high above the circumstances of this life! Does that mean all our troubles are erased? Of course not, but there is a new, fresh perspective when our eyes are on Him and our hope is in Him...that is the secret to not just stumbling and suviving, but living with a deeper intimacy and understanding of our Creator and running with the purpose He has designed us to have. 

Do you not know?

    Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God,

    the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary,

    and his understanding no one can fathom.

   He gives strength to the weary

    and increases the power of the weak.

   Even youths grow tired and weary,

    and young men stumble and fall;

   but those who hope in the Lord

    will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles;

    they will run and not grow weary,

    they will walk and not be faint.

(Isaiah 40:28-31)